A periodic operation is an operation that occurs at regular intervals. For example, in a data replication operation, data such as files are periodically replicated from one storage location to another.
When executing a periodic operation, system resources are consumed. For example, replicating a file consumes disk input/output, memory, and network bandwidth, among other resources. The more operations that are performed at the same time, the higher the utilization level of the resources. When managing the scheduling of numerous periodic activities, it becomes difficult to select an optimal start time to avoid interference with previously scheduled activities.
The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.